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Agustin had just gotten back from Señora Guzman’s, and made his way up the short stone path. The gathering clouds overhead began to grow dark and thunderous. The entire encanto knew to brace for the oncoming storm, and there was no doubt; it was time. Back inside, Casita sat still and felt empty. The growing shadows gave length to the hallways of a home already too big for its family. Agustin knew exactly where everyone would be, but still, he felt separated from them already. It hadn’t been a part of the plan to take Isabela away, but Bruno was in such a state that there was no consoling him.
“I just can’t, and you don’t have time for me to explain!” Agustin recalled Bruno’s shaking disembodied voice from behind his tower door. “T-t-t-take her to Señora Guzman! Yeah, that sh-sh-should help get the ball rolling.” The frantic hysterics, this nonsense he was spouting, weren’t exactly new for him, but Agustin thought his brother-in-law had been doing better lately. That maybe getting to bond with his niece these past months had finally helped calm him. Clearly now that hadn’t been the case.
“I understand, Bruno.” he said as he looked down to the baby in his arms and started to walk away. Isabela was already growing restless at the notion of moving away from the sound of her silly uncle’s voice. No longer an infant, but she still felt small and fragile in his arms. Agustin pulled her close to his chest as the next step took him out of sight with Bruno’s door. Just then there was a loud crash and Bruno’s voice came rolling after him with a booming new presence.
“Agustin!”, he leaned back to regain his view of the stairs. The closed door now flung open and pressed against the wall. A single shaking finger was already curling back into the shadows; consumed by the shaggy silhouette that backed it. Bruno’s enormous eyes absorbed what seldom light there was in the tower stairwell to glow down at him. The voice that followed was a mere echo compared to the one that called him. “Don’t go in the room.”
Walking alone now through the quiet, Agustin made his way up to the second floor and pondered Bruno’s final commandment. If he wasn’t meant to go in the room then couldn’t he have just as easily been the one to watch Isabela? Julieta’s confused tone at his report should have been enough to stop him, but then he was still caught up in the frenzy. Ready to accomplish his mission and make his family proud. A part of the moment with everyone else, but what was he a part of now?
He stopped in front of Pepa’s door. The shining sun above her illustration’s head seemed exceptionally bright with the sky growing darker still. It was just past lunch when they were all called into action. A sudden cry interrupted the calm and quiet of an otherwise normal day. The clouds had begun to gather over the house almost immediately. Now the rich dark blanket surely covered the whole encanto, if not more. A heavy wind picked up and Agustin turned his back on the door to look out into the clouds. With both hands on the railing he tried to interpret the sky. The winds; only just started, and already strong enough to be picking leaves up off the trees and carrying them over the house. If this was what was happening to the environment then there was no telling what havoc was happening on the other side of that door. It was already becoming a testing notion. Turning to face the door, Agustin examined it top to bottom more than once. He felt foolish to let such questionably sourced words stay him, but if the vision was enough to move Bruno as it appeared too; then stay he would.
The over pensive and tiring thought process that had been plaguing Agustin for too long already, was served a deflection when he heard the trickling chatter of the floor tiles at his side. There was a wooden chair dressed in chipped and fading blue paint with red decorative details slowly skating across the floor toward him. He received it with a hand and slid it back against the railing before he took his seat.
“Thank you, Casita.” he said, suddenly feeling less alone on his side of the door. It was then that he realized the rain had started. The soft patter of raindrops against the roof and courtyard created a calm and soothing wash of soft noise, but it was the cool mist against his neck that brought him up to speed.
For a while Agustin sat in quiet, thinking of how everyone through town was fairing against the storm. Thinking of how the storm within Pepa’s room must have been brewing. Thinking of Señora Guzman and the dumbfounded look on her face as he frantically tried to explain his needs, half shoving Isabela into her arms. Still she gave her promise to keep the child safe for him. It took a special kind of grace to give so much with so little warning, and be so kind through it. He would always be grateful to her for that. Señora Guzman had a power of her own, and Agustin decided that he would very much like to see her shine for it in her own right someday. He knew there was more power in this word than what could be granted from a miraculous candle. Sure the Madrigal magic was fanciful and captivating at a near constant, but if he ever tried to say that was the only reason he loved Julieta; it would be the biggest lie he ever told.
The jingling of Pepa’s doorknob turning brought Agustin’s eyes upward, and he found himself standing in anticipation well before the door opened. When it did, Felix came out drenched head to toe and carrying a basket. Agustin stood mouth agape. He wasn’t sure what to ask about first; the state of his soggy brother-in-law, or the flashes of lightning he could see rapidly bursting in Pepa’s room before Casita swung the door shut again. Agustin’s words came back to him with a cough and he finally spoke.
“How is she?” Felix smiled at the question and placed his open hand on Augustin’s shoulder where it would certainly leave a damp impression.
“It would be better to ask about the weather in a hurricane my friend; but I think it is fair to say she is doing well, and I believe we will all be fine by the end.” Felix gave Agustin’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before his smile soured slightly and his gaze started to fall to the side. “...but the goodies?” Augustin looked down into the basket and immediately discovered what Felix meant. The contents that were once the bundled arepas and buñuelos prepared for Pepa’s recovery had been turned into a pale smear threatening to escape through the weaves. “All gone I’m afraid. All but one that is.” and the wicked delight started to crease its way back into the corners of Felix’s mouth. Agustin’s eyes managed to grow even wider as he remembered the small jar sealed in wax that Julieta had set aside.
“Will that be enough? That was just the special pudding for Dolo-.” The basket came crashing down the floor and Agustin felt Felix’s grip on his shoulder tighten as he tried to finish his next sentence. A single finger was interjected between their faces in a flash.
“Don’t you dare, Agustin!” Felix never stopped smiling, but for just a moment his expression sharpened to a harsh degree; eyes widened with wild ferocity. His features softened again as he gave out a coy chuckle and slowly lowered his hand. The playful man looked as if he was about to say more, but never got to. A loud crash of thunder signaled Casita to open the bedroom door, revealing Pepa’s voice calling Felix’s name in a rising scream. The call never reached its apex before Felix’s back was turned to Agustin and the door was closed again with an urgent slam. The wind picked up so much that it could be heard whistling through the mountains that surrounded the encanto. Even over the rainfall that was growing dense and clamorous.
Agustin let out a long sigh as the excitement of the moment drained away; leaving him feeling tired and a bit sore. He slumped down to put a hand on the basket handle and dragged it back with him as he collapsed into the chair. How could doing nothing be so exhausting? He rested his head back on the railing behind him and closed his eyes for a monomet. He listened. The rain water poured off the courtyard awnings in staggered sheets, and crashed into the water below. It was already pooling on the courtyard floor faster than Casita could see it cleared. If it weren’t for the way that the house was shaped, Agustin would have surely been washed away by windswept waters. Instead, the winds passed right over the mouth of the courtyard. He could feel the serenity of his surroundings, and then he realized it was the complete opposite of what was happening on the other side of the door before him. He thought of Pepa and Felix, his wife and her mother, the erratic bursts of lightning coming from inside the room he had seen. Were they dangerous? He couldn’t remember ever seeing Pepa’s gift acting so violently. Of course he was familiar with the thunderous storm cloud that followed Pepa through all her troubles, but in the brief flash he saw; he could still tell the lightning was arcing much farther outside the cloud than normal. Possibly threatening those in the room with her. Even the drama of her wedding day hadn’t been quite so near. Another rock fell into the pit of Agustin’s stomach as he stopped himself from leaving the chair to check the room once more. He hunched over, putting his hands on his knees. His shoulders raised high with each next breath. Finally a great exhale allowed him to lean back again and close his eyes, but when he started to listen this time, the rain wasn’t the first thing he heard.
It was the oddest clunk, and then it vanished for a few moments. Another one came that was followed by another silence. Agustin leaned forward and peered about to try and spot the source of the noise, but nothing was showing itself to be the culprit. When the third clunk came it had the accompaniment of an even stranger light chattering. Now he was on his feet. By the sixth turn the intruding sound had grown loud enough that he could tell it was coming from the direction of the stairs. Agustin stood guard at the far corner from the stairs. His back to Pepa’s door. With the next clunk, the brim of a large clay serving dish could be seen breaching the top of the stair. The floor tiles slowly rolling underneath stirred up another clatter, and brought the real article into view with another forward bound. The large plate held a mountain of steaming towels. Immediately Agustin broke into a run to assist Casita, feeling foolish that he hadn’t considered fetching them himself. He hoped that wasn’t the true purpose of Felix’s departure from the room. He lifted the dish off of the rolling tiles and ran it back to the door. Now standing in the midst of another internal conflict, Agustin considered his options. It didn’t take long for him to find his solution, but it also wasn’t the most well thought out. In spite of the heat, he shoved both hands under the mound of towels and began hoisting them up.
“Casita! A little help!” At once Pepa’s door swung open and Agustin flung the hot stack of towels into the room. They soared through the air for a few feet and then seemed to stop in place, hanging there. Agustin looked on in aw, that is, until he spotted the pair of eyes staring back at him from a gap in the towels. Alma must have asked Casita directly to bring up the towels for Pepa, and then been on her way to collect them. She now stood perfectly still, her arms already bent up at the elbows, as if she were preparing to receive the plate. Agustin could only smile nervously while her glare held him locked in place. Finally Casita closed the door between them and Agustin felt as though he was allowed to breathe again.
A stack of steaming towels to the face was probably going to leave a mark, or so was Agustin’s assumptions. Whatever was happening on the other side of that door, he felt less welcome now to be a part of than before. Even the chair Casita had provided him didn’t look to be very welcoming as he addressed it. So he stood, leaning against the railing for a while. There was no telling how much time had passed while he waited. He decided to save himself the stress of keeping track. The sky had been nearly black since just past mid day. It could be night already for all he knew. He wondered how long he would be conscripted to this watch over a glowing door. There was no relaxing with the ever present storm raging. For a time Agustin tried to occupy his mind in more thought, but now he couldn’t prevent himself from turning to dread. All the what ifs that he felt helpless to aid in held a veil between him and any hopeful image he could to seek. So he focused on his breathing. He found his way back into the chair and felt the threading of his trousers under his hands. He drank up every vibration caused by each roaring burst of thunder, and let the following flashing be the only light to brighten the darkness of his softly shut eyes. A single drop of rain never hit him directly, but even under Casitas protection he was still becoming damp himself. The moisture had impregnated the air so much that it was soaking into his clothes and sticking to his skin. A detail Agustin would have sooner overlooked if it weren’t for what happened next.
All at once the winds and rain ceased. Everything grew still and silent. The only interruption was the occasional rolling thunder, much softer now than before. Agustin kept his eyes closed, trying his best not to guess at what situations might be developing in the wake of this change, and then he felt it; the temperature was dropping. The warm august air was turning to a chill that pierced through his damp clothes, directly onto his skin. It got so cold so fast that when Agustin opened his eyes, his breath was a thick cloud of steam in his own face. He could barely see it though. The water collecting on his glasses had already turned to frost. Removing the glasses, he stood up and pulled a corner of his shirt loose to wipe them clear before putting them back on. The cold was already becoming too much to bear.
It was a short run to Julieta’s room. Once inside, Agustin only stayed long enough to swipe a blanket off of a nearby chair and wrap it around himself. When he came back out into the hall the chill had grown so harsh that the water pooling in the courtyard floor was freezing and cracking apart from the rapid changes in pressure. The echoing and creaking snaps were so unwelcome that Agustin might have covered his ears, but he was frozen in place. His eyes were fixed on the open and uncovered space of Casita’s courtyard. In the absence of the wind and rain it began to snow. Agustin had never seen snow in the encanto before, let alone in august. It was beautiful, but the implications threatened to send his mind reeling once more. No, he found his resolve and marched himself back across the threshold of Alma’s door, and back to his station outside of Pepa’s room. He couldn’t know what this meant, and he wouldn’t know until someone came out of that room and told him.
Even so, the blanket he grabbed wasn’t the thickest by far and trying to stay out in the cold forced a tension into his neck and back. Soon it crept back into his thoughts, and he sat outside the door feeling a lonely despair. He couldn’t say how long he had remained in that state, but even Casita could sense it and before long. It was all Agustin could do to hold the blanket tight around himself and stare at the floor. Finally Casita had had enough and began to rattle the floor tiles that rested directly under Agustin’s gaze. He was non responsive at first, but the persistent and growing chatter was finally enough to get him to blink the fearful look from his eyes. He gave his head a swift and gentle shake. When he looked up, his heart skipped another beat. The light of Pepa’s door appeared to be growing very dim.
Agustin leapt up from his seat and turned on the spot so quickly that his blanket flared around him. His raging nerves settled again almost as quickly as they fired when he realized every shiny door had taken on the same dim value. The doors, the walls, the railings; everything was caked in frost. Including the floor, as Agustin discovered when he nearly lost his feet from under him as he tried to return to his chair once more. He splashed back into the seat, feeling warmer than he had in what felt like hours. Through his desperate quest for affirmation, he completely missed that the snow had already stopped. It wasn’t much longer from then that Pepa’s door was broken free from its icy seal.
The doorknob turned but it wasn’t until the third yank that it finally opened. When it did, all of Agustin’s senses were bombarded. What felt like a blistering warmth fell over him, but he didn’t have time to worry about that because along with it came a light as bright as the sun and a newborn baby’s cry so loud that Agustin was sure all of the encanto could hear it from their home up on the hill. Felix was the first body he could make out, and right after him, Agustin could see that he had Alma hanging onto one of his arms. They both had broad closed lipped smiles. They both looked exhausted, and were absolutely soaked. As Agustin had feared, Alma’s face was covered in bright red splotches from the towels, but she didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Oh Felix, she’s beautiful. She’s wonderful. Our family grows. Thank you.” Alma said as she pulled a waxed paper parcel from her pocket. She worked it open as the two walked past Agustin to reveal one of Julieta’s arepas. She must have been keeping it on hand in case of any emergency. Which, in spite of the turbulent shape of the world outside, was apparently never needed. Alma took a bite and almost instantly the red blemishes on her face began to vanish. Felix walked her to her bedroom just one door down and found himself getting tugged inside. Agustin knew the speech Felix was about to get already. As Alma had done something much the same to him the day that Isabella was born, just over a year previously.
As soon as Pepa’s door had been opened, the frost started to pour down off the walls in watery streams. The courtyard had turned from a sheet of ice back to a small lake and was drained again in moments. The clouds vanished from the sky just in time to show the sunset. The last thing Agustin saw before his glasses fogged over were Felix and Alma’s smiling faces, and right now; that was all he needed. He leaned forward in his chair putting his elbows to his knees and laced his fingers together. It was all he could do to keep from hugging himself in relief. He started to plan his return trip to Señora Guzman’s house, and the many thanks he would be paying her for a long time to come. First he would wait for his wife to finish up with Pepa and the new baby. He knew she would be just as exhausted as the rest, and even for just the short walk down the hall, Agustin was already eager to help her along. Their hard day was coming to an end and already Casita was feeling a little more full for it. Agustin sat quietly in the hall smiling to himself while he waited. Already, he was wondering what might have changed had he chosen to enter the room. What could Bruno have seen? Right now, if one less klutz in the room was all it took for everything to end so well then that was enough for him. He whispered a joyful salutation while he sat.
“Welcome to the family, Dolores.”